1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for attaching ferrules to optical cables.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Ferrules are attached to optical cables for connecting two optical cables by means of a connector. Ferrules have a front aperture for holding the cable jacket of an optical cable and a rear aperture for retaining the optical fiber which is exposed from the cable jacket. Adhesives are put into ferrules to bond the optical cables to the ferrules. The optical fibers protruding from the rear apertures are cut and polished to form an abutment face which is to be abutted on that of another optical fiber by means of a connector.
However, optical fibers are so brittle that they can be broken upon cut and/or polished, forming rough abutment faces. Thus, masses of adhesive are manually put on the roots of projected fibers and, then, the adhesive masses and the optical fibers are cut and polished simultaneously.
However, since the adhesive attachment is the manual operation, it takes much time to put masses of adhesive to the rear faces of ferrules. In addition, it is frequent that the attached masses of adhesive are different in volume and shape from ferrule to ferrule. Further, the adhesives can adhere to the operators' hands and/or undesired areas of the ferrules.